Who can I sue?

That has been my question for most of the year. I am so tired of being lied to. Just to cut to the theme of this article, if any other profession or industry did to the American public what our media and politicians are doing now, we would be able to bring a law suit against them. I want to own the Republican National Convention, Fox News, and whatever station Rush Limbaugh is on. So, who can I sue?

It is my opinion that Americans are getting stupider. (Noticed that I used the word ‘opinion’ because it is a subjective statement without scientific proof.) We no longer value intelligence and facts. Instead we have a reality show mentality in our culture. People like Rush Limbaugh have moved the media from harbingers of truth to the pied pipers of lies. He is OK with drowning his listeners (who in this analogy are rats) in the ocean of stupidity, all the while laughing himself to the bank. On Monday, Rush attempted to link the National Hurricane Center’s forecast models to the President. “I’m not alleging conspiracies here. The Hurricane Center is the regime; the Hurricane Center is the Commerce Department. It’s the government. It’s Obama.” Now I cannot tell you what he was implying but I can say what was inferred. He may not be alleging a conspiracy but he is inferring one.

Please understand that I am a staunch supporter of freedom of speech. I fully believe that every dipshit, skinhead, neo-Nazi has the right to spout his or her opinion. I am against censorship in any form. But there is more to what Rush is doing. He did not phrase this as an opinion. Had he done that, I would have nothing to say. Instead the inference was that he was doing a Woodward and Bernstein and busting open a ‘not-conspiracy’. Or in other words, he was lying. He was making the populace dumber by his misinformation. If Rush dropped lead into the water and made us dumber, I could sue him. If he incited a riot and people got hurt, we could sue him. He pumps out lies for ratings which translate to sponsorship. In any other industry, lying for money is fraud and both a criminal and civil offense. So, who can I sue?

Can I sue the whole Republican National Convention or do I need to sue different people individually? Do I go after Rae Lynne Chornenky, President of the National Federation of Republican Women, who, in her speech at the Republican Convention, claimed that 850,000 women have lost their jobs under President Obama and that women lost 92 percent of all the jobs lost under the Obama administration? Both of these numbers are made up. (http://factcheck.org/2012/08/republican-retreads-from-tampa/) She lied to women to get them to vote for Romney. She made up facts because women’s issues are a huge part of this election. For many women this election comes down to controlling your vagina or selling it for money. And yes, I expect that if you are going to give a speech at an organization, you should check your facts. If my banker said that he could get me 25% return of my investment but the real number was 5%, I could sue him.

Can I sue the Romney campaign for running ads that say that Obama will gut welfare reform by dropping the work requirement even though it is not true? Look at FactCheck again. I am tired of being lied to and I want to sue someone.

I get that people will say a lot of stuff to get elected but even in advertising there are limits to what you can say. The Federal Truth in Advertising Laws delineate between puffery and fraud. Puffery is a subjective claim that cannot be proven. When Ann Romney talks about how she loves her husband that is puffery. It’s nice and sweet and not provable by any logical means. If the media and politicians where only puffing, I would have no problem. But when John Archer, the Republican Congressional Candidate for Iowa, said at the convention that “we’ll talk about getting government out from in between patients and their doctors by repealing Obamacare” when the law doesn’t regulate what doctors can and can’t do, or even which doctors patients can see, this is a misrepresentation of the truth. Lying to get a job is fraud. Lying to make money is fraud. If my neurosurgeon made up facts to perform surgery on me, I could sue. If my financial analyst pulled numbers out of his butt to get my business, I could sue.

So answer me, my legally savvy readers, who can I sue?

UPDATE: Can I sue Ryan? How bad is it that Fox News, who are generally immune to facts, said that Ryan’s Republican National Convention speech was an “attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations”?

@domod2 @CoupleDumb Thank you for your response. We are glad to hear that you are willing to look at both sides. That is a start.
As far as your questions, our voter reg cards say that we have no party affiliation. 8 years ago, we were Republicans. Lee was very Republican from Republican family. She had a family member at the RNC. Paul was almost Libertarian because he was very constitutionally based. 4 years ago, mainly thanks to Palin’s vapidness, we left the party. Thanks to the infiltration of the Tea Party, we have moved to the Democratic side.
CoupleDumb is not a political blog. It is a relationship blog. When people like Santorum attacked gay’s rights to equal relationships, we needed to speak up. When lawmakers began introducing legislation against women, we need to make a statement. When they attacked education, we needed to speak our minds. Unfortunately these are Republican platforms.

So we are Democrats because the Republican party has soundly delivered us into their hands.

So now I task you. What are the policies, not the lies or spin, that you believe in? Let us start arguing policy and not rhetoric.

@CoupleDumb The Tea Party movement is an American political movement that advocates strict adherence to the United States Constitution, reducing U.S.government spending and taxes,and reduction of the U.S. national debt and federal budget deficit. The movement is generally considered to be partly conservative, partly libertarian,and partly populist. What don’t you agree with there?
On a side note, are you an atheist?

@domod2@CoupleDumb From that blurb, there is little that we disagree with. Unfortunately there is more to the belief. Taken from the same Wikipedia page that you sited:
“The Tea Party movement is composed of a loose affiliation of national and local groups that determine their own platforms and agendas without central leadership. The Tea Party movement has been cited as an example of grassroots political activity, although it has also been described as an example of astroturfing.
The Tea Party movement is not a national political party; polls show that most Tea Partiers consider themselves to be Republicans and the movement’s supporters have tended to endorse Republican candidates. Commentators, including Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport, have suggested that the movement is not a new political group but simply a re-branding of traditional Republican candidates and policies. An October 2010 Washington Post canvass of local Tea Party organizers found 87% saying “dissatisfaction with mainstream Republican Party leaders” was “an important factor in the support the group has received so far”.
The Tea Party movement’s membership includes notable Republican politicians Ron Paul, his son Rand Paul, Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, and Michele Bachmann. Joshua Green has said the elder Paul is not the Tea Party’s founder, or its culturally resonant figure, but has become the “intellectual godfather” of the movement as many now agree with his long-held beliefs.”

The Republican party does not stop at that blurb. Here is the Republican platform http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/papers_pdf/101961.pdf
Take a look at the parts on marriage and abortion.